Yard Sale

If we were sensible about it, and my brother were in charge, we would have photographed every item worth more than 20 euros, and posted it everywhere online, and tossed the rest of the junk on the street while we waited for buyers to arrive with money.

But where's the fun in that?

Saturday was the friends and colleagues day of the sale. I posted downstairs "Rooftop Flohmarkt (flea market) Fiesta" to also spread word through the building what was afoot. And it was a bit of both. Michael and his family came early and they took a bunch of stuff back with them, and then it was a steady stream of people who came.  As the night crept on, the balance of drinking and buying shifted more and more towards the former, although I must say that it definitely helped sales.

At one point we were all on the roof, Fabio cradling his new ukelele (8 euros, good condition) for photographs. Actually, probably a good many people were probably there also to say goodbye to rooftop wine parties as much as to us.

The party chowed through samosas, and scooped through a half-gallon of salsa I'd made the day before. My idea of consuming our alcohol via this party/sale was a dismal failure. Although we did finish off the bad tequila, we ended up with a net gain in bottles of wine.

We cleared maybe a quarter to a third of the stuff we had originally set out to sell. Sunday, with everything more or less still ready for sales, I posted the sale on the international forums, starting: immediately. Saori was really not happy with this since she was barely rolled out of bed, but I reasoned with her, look, nobody is going to see this sale and immediately head over- when I was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. Saori dashed to the bedroom while I turned off the fire on the eggs I was cooking for breakfast.

Our first customer of the day was waiting to surprise us. In rough order, here were the customers we had on sunday and monday.

Kostas- a middle-aged Greek cousin of Apo's whom met about two years ago who came to Stuttgart to look for work as a civil engineer, a devoted father who brought his family as well, but struggled to find work with his German skill. When I met him, he could barely say anything in German, but he threw himself into learning, paying for evening classes at IFA in addition to working full time at backbreaking work as a tile layer and general constructor. He is really frustrated with Germany, and although his German is now even better than mine, he feels the same impediment to gaining meaningful and profitable employment and is actually considering returning to Greece. We sold him a bunch of tools and plants.

Ram- a heavyset university student from India studying traffic engineering and transit infrastructure. Asked for a moment outside our door to catch his breath. Took a lot of plants and some books.

Phil- and his wife, American from Guam, a serviceman, I'm guessing from one of the giant bases around town. Big guy. Tattoos. He came for the old clock which was broken, and we also sold them some housewares and plants. Apparently he was the one with the green thumb. His wife didn't want the banana tree. "Every time I smell bananas," she told us, "I get too homesick." Surprisingly, an U of Arizona alum, although his brother went ASU.

???- Serbian, some kind of building engineer. Married to a half-Japanese woman, and they once lived together in a super-hip area of Tokyo by the university. He took some of the architecture books and we also nudged him to take the Japanese history books in Japanese.

Jochen - brought his wife and son. Actually, I know him: he's the accountant/lawyer from my old office. He was mostly there to chat and take in the views, but he did also take a wooden African giraffe, and a few things his son wanted, like an LED band with a remote control that I never got around the putting anywhere.

Sara - Young Syrian woman who came to Stuttgart by way of Italy, interested in the arts. Originally she was just interested in a 5 euro bag of acrylic paints, but spent at least an hour here, and took a bunch of clothes, a lamp, some housewares, shoes, and we ended up with nearly 50 euros from her. Hard bargainer. Even after we were pricing things absurdly low.

Analyn and husband, who she woke up from a nap and directed him here from their home in Boblingen. Another military couple. She was originally Philipino, and maybe he might have been too, but they had come to Stuttgart from Miami, Florida, where apparently it's hard to get a job as a construction contractor. I though Miami was hopping, but according to him, it depends which industry you're looking at. If building contractors are having hard time finding work, could be a slowdown in construction- canary for the economy. Anyway, he's a building maintenance guy for the base, and despite living in Stuttgart area for the past six months, has never actually been to, you know, Stuttgart. They drove here in their car, had a devil of a time finding our apartment building even after I gave them the address and directions, and it sounded like they didn't know Stuttgart had a public transit system.

Anyway, typical American blindspot. We are moving back to the US to be closer to family, to pay off our debts, and chart a better career track. But the price we pay is to live in a developing nation which has successfully branded itself as developed.

Anyway, anyway, we've made about 300 euros so far selling stuff. I was sad to let go of my professional juicer, but not nearly as sad as Saori selling off the cacti and succulents. They really were a product of her hard work, eye for pot-plant combinations, and plant knowledge.